Choice in education is set to be a big issue leading up to the state election, but little thought has gone in to what represents choice.
A public campaign, latched on to by the Liberals and Nationals, constantly talks about choice as being alternatives to the combined campus at Greater Shepparton Secondary College.
In fact, they argue about restoring choice, as if it was lost when four secondary colleges merged into one.
The reality is that we never had choice.
In Shepparton and Mooroopna, as across the rest of Victoria, the only choices were public, private or religious. Those choices remain, nothing has changed.
The rules are simple.
Your designated neighbourhood government school (referred to as your local school) is generally the government school closest to your child’s permanent residential address.
If your child lives in metropolitan Melbourne, Ballarat, Bendigo or Geelong, their local school is usually the nearest government school in a straight line from their permanent address.
In any other area of Victoria, it is usually the nearest school by the shortest practical route by road.
Choice in Shepparton and Mooroopna was the result of these rules being ignored, by the schools and parents.
Cherry picking led to a perversion of the system and an imbalance.
Three schools were declining, as seen in their results, but even the fourth, which was bursting at the seams, was still underperforming. Had it been allowed to continue, we would have ended up with a so-called super school anyway, a campus with the bulk of students but ageing facilities and a less than ideal learning environment.
What choice would that have left the families and students that couldn’t find a place?
State Education Minister James Merlino has been asked in Victorian Parliament about the missing 500 students based on the numbers enrolled in the last year of operation of the four schools and the current enrolment.
It was posed as an exodus and a vote of no-confidence in the new school, but that is far too simplistic.
I can vouch for one, and personally know of at least 20 more, who are not at school because they have moved into the workforce — not surprising at a time when unemployment is around three per cent in the region.
It doesn’t consider the impacts of expanded and free TAFE, expansion of non-government schools in the region, the fact that our population actually declined over the pandemic and a long-term decline in birth rates.
At a time when the education system is under stress, it would be a shame if this attempt to smear the school was responsible for a random call this week to check on what my son is up to after leaving GSSC.
Why does GSSC have to justify its enrolment levels to a small band of malcontents when the answer is simple.
People have exercised choice. They have enrolled or not, continued school or gone to TAFE, left education for the workforce or left the region altogether.
Those choices are the same for every student in Victoria.